Palestinian Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs has called for Ireland's formal recognition of Palestine

In an interview with RTÉ’s Juliette Gash, Palestinian Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr Amal Jadou Shakaa, has called for Ireland to formally recognise the state of Palestine.

Last month, Dr Jadou visited Ireland to meet for discussions with officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Speaking on her visit, the Deputy Minister said, "So many Palestinians or I think maybe every Palestinian loves Ireland, although they have never been to Ireland and the reason for that is the empathy, sympathy and solidarity that the Irish people show towards Palestine."

RTÉ also reported that Jadou continued, explaining that the Palestinian Authority is keen to "move the peace process forward", to "push for alleviating the pain and the suffering that the Palestinian people are undergoing now as a result of the ongoing Israeli occupation of our land".

As agreed on by both houses of the Oireachtas, Minister Jadou is also pushing for Ireland to formally recognise the State of Palestine.

"We want Ireland and other European countries that have not recognised [the State of Palestine] to recognise and we also want the United States of America to recognise the state of Palestine, because this will salvage the two-state solution and this will infuse huge hope in the Palestinians," she said.

RTÉ also outlined Tánaiste Mícheál Martin's response to questions that centred around Ireland’s recognition of Palestine last January.

"In the absence of progress towards a two-State solution, I would be prepared to recommend to the Government recognition by Ireland of a State of Palestine, if and when it might be helpful, and this is a matter which I discuss regularly with EU colleagues,” the Tánaiste said.

"If recognition by Ireland happened outside the context of an overall peace agreement, this would be likely to have an adverse effect on Ireland’s influence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at EU and international level,” Mr Martin continued.

"The timing and context of any such decision would affect whether such a loss of influence would be matched by a commensurate benefit for the Palestinian people and a positive impact on the peace process and a two-State solution."